Is this TMI, Dr. Internets?

This afternoon my eyes started freaking out on me. In a scary is-this-what-it-feels-like-to-go-blind? kind of way. But I was overreacting. Probably. I was working at my computer when I got this lightning-bolt shaped, blurry, flashing light spot in my vision and a headache to go with it (except the headache was already there, it just seemed intensified with the vision thing).

I would guess that if I had more normal eyes to begin with, I wouldn't have been too concerned about this. But I have really terrible vision. Like superbad, can't-see-the-Big-E kind of bad. And when I saw my eye doctor last year, she told me that since my vision was so bad, my retinas were more likely to tear, so if I saw flashing lights in my peripheral vision that didn't go away, I should call and come in immediately. Because I could lose my vision if I didn't take care of the retina problem. So when I saw this flashing light this afternoon, I freaked a little. Also, my eye has been twitching lately, which always seems to happen when I'm feeling stressed, and last night I was feeling like there was a lot of pressure behind my eyes and I thought I should probably go to the ophthalmologist and make sure nothing was wrong. And then the next day something was Wrong.

Wait five minutes, I said to myself. See if has gone away by then. Five minutes came and went. Still lighting bolts. Possibly even getting more intense. I honestly couldn't read my computer screen anymore, it had affected my vision that much. Ten minutes. Still flashy. Time to google. (Somehow that is always my go-to solution. And it hasn't failed me yet.)

I googled something like "vision flashing light eye." Maybe one other word. Eh, doesn't matter. I found that this is apparently a fairly common and not-too-severe problem. It's called an ophthalmic migraine and 10 percent of migraine sufferers have them (however, I am not a migraine sufferer). It can be either a precursor to a "common" migraine or it can happen by itself, with no headache. Instead of lightning bolts, all the websites called them zigzags. And they all said that the zigzags would intensify (check), expand outward toward the periphery of vision (check), and then go away after 20-30 minutes.

And like magic, at almost exactly twenty minutes my zigzags went away. And about an hour after that I scheduled an appointment with my eye doctor.